It may become illegal to unlock your phone starting Saturday

0.phoneArena
24 Jan 2013, 14:55posted on

Do you all remember that ruckus that happened over whether or not it was illegal to jailbreak your mobile device? Well, that whole fiasco is poised to come back in a bad way this weekend. As part of that decision, it may become illegal to unlock your smartphone starting this Saturday, January 26th, unless you get permission from your carrier...

73.metalpoet (unregistered)

Im sorry but I actually approve of it being illegal in the U.S. for rooting, jailbreaking, or unlocking your device if your under contract. I know its not a popular opinion but those people that want to buy devices that are already unlocked directly affect my job and therefore I am against it.

And to Mxyzptlk:
Normally We never see eye to eye but I agree with you that no one truly owns their device until their contract is fulfilled or they buy the deivce out right. Thats the reason why contracts exist in the cellphone world, because Wireless Carriers have 2 years of gauranteed revenue from you and in exchange they will let you to a rent to own on that $700 cellphone :)

Android is quasi-open source, because while the source code is made available, it isn't made available until Google releases it. It's not like you can go in and help with the code for Android Key Lime Pie while Google is working on it right now, like you can with Ubuntu or Firefox.

Mike, sorry but your argument makes little sense. I can't imagine that the GPL requires a developer to publish non-final/unstable code (i.e. every time a character is added or removed from the code, intentionally or not). However, I would agree with you if you had claimed that Android does not comply with the GPL since it requires, in theory, all software associated with Android to be also be distributed as open-source (drivers, third party apps, etc.), which I can't imagine they all are.

locked bootloaders does not disallow the modding of a phone - on my DROID RAZR, locked BL, I use safestrap with TWRP recovery and can flash a JB ROM on it....and the one I have now is still better than the new JB update.

"To be clear, this will make it illegal to unlock carrier-locked devices without permission from your carrier." Is time for the American people to wake up from their fog, and start doing the right thing. Perhaps, we should dump, yes I know is never going to happen, carriers with locked devices and see what happens. I refuse to count minutes and text. Furthermore, not going to pay $10-20 for text packages, when I know the cost is minimal to the particular carrier. Verizon, think their providing an invaluable deal with their share everything. I rather go old school, purchase a flip phone, and use the internet when home.

T-Mobile is already moving away from locked devices. The thing I wonder about is that Verizon said moving away from contracts is a good idea, but that doesn't necessarily mean moving away from locked devices.

Actually, I had a very lovely conversation with a Verizon Data Technical Support Supervisor this past Sunday, apparently, my Verizon Galaxy Note 2, like the Iphone 5, is already unlocked. She said that most Verizon 4G phones are now unlocked, unlike Global 3G phones which have to be unlocked. Anyhoot, what I don't understand about the article, are we to infer that Jailbreak = unlocked and that the so called illegality of the jailbreak would also imply illegality of a rooted phone since, jailbreak and root are synonymous in certain technical circles??

Jailbreak doesn't equal unlocked. Jailbreak and root are synonymous, but they are different from unlocking. Jailbreak and root are legal because the court determined that users own the software on the device, but as of Saturday, we apparently don't own the hardware that we purchase, so unlocking becomes illegal.

Michael I have a question and maybe you could research into this. What about us getting a phone on ebay and the unlock the phone paying a retail seller? Would that be illegal? I mean I dont think so but its what I understand

I am confused, unlocking the phone is somehow something hardware associated? Color me surprised, I was sure that the Lock was a software lock and not a hardware lock and since we own the software then wouldn't that make the lock illegal to begin with? Who writes the dumb as hell rules, you own the software when you purchase the phone but you don't own the hardware, yet it's illegal to unlock it without your carriers consent but it's a software lock and not hardware lock...so I find something completely wrong with this whole story.

Someone please explain, as of now I find this crazy. Another thing how would you lock the hardware?!? Anyone else confused?

Im seriously getting sick of this. YOU purchased your hardware. You should be able to do whatever you want to said hardware. So what you signed a contract? That is with the carrier you chose NOT THE MAKER OF THE DEVICE! Its all the same when you buy a laptop. if you decide "nah i want Linux on it" you dont void any type of waranties when you do that. why not the same with Phones?!

Adding Linux is not tampering with the hardware, that's software. Try tampering with your laptop hardware & then try warranting it out. It's not just phones. You can't modify the hardware bc it affects the warranty on the equipment. Not sure why ppl think this is unreasonable. It's really not that big of a deal.

Eventually true. I'm pretty excited about T-mobile refarming their 1900 mhz spectrum. I was also unaware of the iphone 5's radios. That's cool it has both CDMA and GSM. Too bad T-mobile will use 1700 mhz for LTE which isn't supported by the iphone 5.

Even if the Verizon device has a GSM band, it is not guaranteed to work properly with T-Mobile or AT&T. And, with LTE, you even have more differences between all of the carrier's LTE networks. LTE works on different bands, too:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks

Just unlocked my phone before it becomes illegal again... Hopefully they put a permanent law that will force carriers to let you do what you want with your phone. You would think the carriers would want you to mess with your phone so when you break it they get to charge you $600 for a new one.

Now I think this is plain stupidity. Technically, any devices that are still under contract means these are still under the carrier's discretion -- but again, these are the phones themselves (meaning the carrier reserves the right to pull back the device should the customer chooses not to continue with the service within the contract period).

As for the software, the end user has the right to do whatsoever he/she wishes to do with the said device and that includes rooting/jailbreaking. Otherwise, they might as well consider downloading apps, documents, and the like to be illegal as well since these are manipulated by the user.

Bottom line; as long as the customer is paying for his services, I think the customer reserves the right to do whatever pleases him with the device.

I could give a damn whether or not they think we should unlock the device or not. But the device is MINE and I would love anyone to tell me differently. Last time I checked there are no guys in suits coming to my door taking my phone if i do not pay my bill. I pay for the service. Man, what is up with this country.

Ok, that's fine. Then if I don't "own" the hardware, then stop making me pay for it. They should force the carrier, with that kind of logic, to give the phones free with our service......But now I am making too much sense. Stop allowing the carriers to lock phones then we won't have a problem.

They do offer phones for free with the service, but unfortunately not the ones that anyone wants right? You can't have your cake & eat it too bro. You're paying $199 for a $650 phone. You dont make any sense at all. Which would you rather do, pay $500-600 each time you want a new phone to say you "own" it or pay $99-199 to pipe down enjoy some of the latest & greatest phones out there? People throw around their measly dollars & feel that they are entitled to tell a business what should happen. Just don't get that kind of logic.

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